ratfacedmcdougal

I've had Eric Leiser's book of fly patterns for years. It has tons of fly patterns which cover everything from warm to salt water and trout to salmon along with a few hints, tips and pics where needed for the advanced beginner to intermediate or even exspert tyer trying a new fly type. Mine is falling apart now... actually, it fell apart. I went on amazon and was really dissapointed at what's out there now. Everyone seems to specialize, just nymphs, just bream etc. Or they cover techniques for beginners but give almost no patterns. And everything seems to be at least six years old or more. With all of the new materials, patterns etc out there... salmon flies alone have new ones popping up everyday you would think someone with some talent at the typewriter would come up with a good comprehensive pattern book covering at least all of the main stream flies in their various catagories and in which if there is an unusual technique it gives some small illustrations. If there are any good writers / researchers out there we need a good comprehensive pattern book. And if I missed one like this someone please direct me, I could use one.

Well, this is a post different than the usual ones I see on here B But what better place to vent than with fishing/tying buddies? Your friend, as you said is under tons of stress, you went so far as to mention "the pipe". Since you agreed to go so readily i'm gonna guess she's never renigged on an obligation before. I would give her the benifit of a doubt and chalk up her current indecisions with all of the stress she's under.And I see no reason not to go forward with the trip.... and with her since that was it's purpose but to also mention something like, "we'll work out some payment arriangements of X amount a month later, right now lets work on you." That should take care of her and what your out. A hard thing though, guys are much more simple. If one of us came to the other with all of that we would look at them sideways and say something like... " Life's tough, go buy a hard hat" followed by,"now shut the ___ up and lets go fishing" :hyst: :hyst: "A failed relationship is never a failure, each person we meet teaches us something about relationships and they all contribute to our success for sustaining a long and loving one when the right one finally does come along" But, yeah, as was said in another post... if talking doesn't seem to do it, encourage her to see someone professional. You can only do so much yourself after that the best help you can offer is to guide her to someone else.

Nice mouse, is that a stainless saltwater hook? It looks different from the normal stinger type.Your mouse reminds me of a story... one of those stories sworn to be true but one in which you can never quite verify. This huge brown... the HUGEST brown lived in this stream (place or stream name always unknown) and no one could catch it because of the water it lived in. A place where every fly thrown would veer off course to one side or the other before reaching the trout because you couldn't get close enough without putting the trout down to present a fly to it. One day the most famous of fly fishermen (name again not remembered) came and sized up the situation. He went back to his car and returned with his warm water outfit and a pine board. Letting out all the line he could onto the ground he placed a deer hair mouse on top of the board and set both mouse and board out to drift .... and it did, it kept going until the board and mouse was right over that huge trout. At this point with a twitch of the rod tip the mouse jumped off the board and into the water. A couple more twitches and that trout came all the way out of the water and inhaled that mouse. After a huge struggle the fish was mastered. That technique works great for surf fishing to get your fly out further by the way :yahoo:

Back when I was dateing my wife much to my delight I found she liked the outdoors as much as I did. We made love in the middle of nature.... too much nature I suppose because 1/2 way through we found out the hard way we were doing it on an ant hill and the ants were neither impressed or pleased with the intrusion :wallbash: :hyst:

For top water I like humpys or wulff type dries and small deer hair poppers and ratfaced mcdougals. For under water I use a fly I started tying years ago. I never have named it but here's the recipe... Hook: 3906-B 8 to 14 Thread: black 6/0 Butt: fine flat silver tinsel Body: Dubbed using the loop and twist method ..coarse rabbit mask mainly guard hairs from the ears and between the eyes mixed with the fur, once you get 3/4 along the shank to the thorax use the long dark guard hairs from between the eyes of the mask and make a dubbing loop to trap the hairs pointing rearward so when you tie it in all the guard hairs point rearward over the fly as in a hares ear or red fox squirrel nymph. Wing: black and white barred wood duck, cut about a 1/2 to 3/4 inch of fibers from the flank and holding them between the fingers of one hand hit against them with the palm of your other to seperate the fibers while keeping the ends aligned. tie these in behind the eye so the black/white tips extend to the butt of the hook over the body in a semi circle and tied in close enough in front of the thorax that they point upward at a 45 degree angle ... like the partridge and orange wet fly. Fish with small twitches, the fly starts on top then after a couple of twitches it sinks slowly and fishes about 6- 8 inches deep though you can tie in lead wire before adding the body if you want it to fish deeper. The black/white woodduck fibers and rabbit guard hair thorax pulse with each twitch and it works out pretty well on bream and crappie and i've had a lot of success with trout and small bass also.

I used to tie commercially. Never on a full time basis but it still amounted to roughly a thousand dozen a year. If there is a standard for such a thing it's basically 5 minutes per fly or a dozen an hour for a standard trout fly or nymph. Some take a little longer or less depending on pattern or materials used. Remember though, that's TYING the fly. That means hackles plucked from capes and sized, materials all laid out and everything at the ready. I once took an order from the Orvis shop in Atlanta Ga. for some fly called a Sheep fly. 146 dozen in different sizes of one fly for one customer. I've never seen that pattern in any book since and have no clue what that man did with all of those flies. But by the time I finished that order I could tie that fly while watching TV and never even look down. By the way, since finishing that order I haven't tied that fly since :hyst: But some patterns take longer than others. I may spend six or eight hours on a salmon fly. Or two minutes on a wooly booger or hares ear nymph. I wouldn't worry with time though. Hopefully your not trying to work your way through school and add an extra package of ramen noodles to your pantry doing this and are doing it for the fun of it instead. I think the more important outcome isn't the time but the end result being the best quality fly you can produce and the satisfaction that comes with that.

A pond with 40 bluegills in it? That's not a pond brother, that's an aquarium!! :hyst: It sounds though like they are concentrating under water for whatever they are eating naturally. I would suggest a small wet fly, say a size #14. I use a fly iv'e been tying for years for bluegill. Here is the recipe.. Hook: 3906-B #10 to #14 Thread: black 6/0 Tag, fine flat silver tinsel Body, hares ear mask, thick and buggy. Cut the longer guard hairs from between the eyes to dub around the thorax and stroke the fibers rearward as in a collar. Wing: black and white wood duck flank fibers tied in a semi circle around the top of the fly as long as hook bend. What I mean is strip off about an inch of fibers including the black/white part between your fingers. While holding them in between the fingers of your right hand sort of hit the ends with the palm of your left hand to seprate the fibers into strands but hold them tight so they remain even. Then roll them around the hook with the black/white tips pointing rearward over the hook bend and shank at roughly almost a 45 degree angle. Pull the fly in short strips, with the under guard of rabbit guard hairs holding up the base of the wing of woodduck as the fly is pulled through the water the wood duck and rabbit fibers pulse and breath closing and opening with each pull. I've never failed catching anything from bluegill, crappy, smaller bass, and trout with it. Ummm... or you could go see the Wonderman and forget all the above non sense

Wings, and most other feather fibers are made basically like a zipper with interlocking teeth, they can be pulled apart and stroked back together because of this. The term "marrying" a wing is when you take a few fibers from different types of wings and stroke them together to form a single wing like the colors in the mute swan, flourican, and speckled bustard in a Jock Scott for instance. In the case of duck or goose quills, hold the feather up at eye leve to the light with the lighter or inner side toward you. Look closely where the feather joins the stem. Notice a line on the first 1/4 to 1/2 inch after the feather joins the stem? It's harder and shinier than the rest of the feather. It also does not join or marry together. When tying down on the hook make sure your thread goes past this line and bites down into the softer and married part of the feather, if not the feather will split. Also, do a "loose loop" first, to do this, as you hold the feather quills between your fingers then take a loose turn of thread around the hook and feathers with your bobbin and bring is straight down making sure the thread is right between your fingers. You do not tighten the thread until the loop has been formed, the thread between your fingers and a complete loop has been formed before pulling straight down. You can then take a couple more turns one IN FRONT OF THE OTHER... not behind each other to snug it all tight. Also,at the same time your pulling your first loop tight increase the pressure betweent the fingers holding the feather sections both downward and together toward each other to lock everything in place. A final note, the wider the feather the harder it is to set the quill section, even if it may be too small for the fly practice first using narrow sections no more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch until you get the hang of it.

First consideration should be your budget. All vices will hold a hook. But I have an HMH standard and a regal and love both of them. The only thing with the regal, it has a nick in the jaws from popping out a #18 hook. The jaws are always closed so no adjustment needed. The problem with that is if you don't put a small hook in right it can pop out and the jaws snap closed and break the jaws. Other than that I love it. I like the HMH better though. The dynaking is really popular also and ive tied on them... great also. All of these are in the $250 to $350 range retail.

First, I pity you and the unfortunate mode of torture which was so evil mindedly thrust upon you :hyst: I searched through all of the replys but didn't see exactly the advice I thought of giving so i'll post my two cents worth also. 1) What kinds of fish do you plan on fishing for? Trout,salmon, bream, bass, tarpon? Once you know that you'll know what types of flies to tie and with that you will know what type of materials to get. 2) Get a good pattern book. I'm OLD school and was brought up on Eric Leiser's book of fly patterns and an old dusty Leiser fly tying kit I found in a tackle shop years ago but now i'm sure there are many to choose from. Just be sure it's one that shows both techniques as well as patterns, and with lots of pictures. )those big words always killed me without something to look at) Make sure it applies to the type of fish you want to catch. In other words, dont get a salmon fly book when you'll be fishing for bream. 3) Pick out flies that you think will serve you well in catching fish or that simply catch your eye. Get the materials to tie those patterns. Fly patterns are always listed as to the order they are tied so this might help you in tying them. I used to tie commerically but don't anymore,so i've got a zoo at my house which i'll never use all of. If there's something you need that you can't afford or find I can probably give you a few of it, just let me know. Carl

As far as a desk, I use a Walmart special I bought years ago for around $30. probably $40 now. The trick is to make sure you get one that is low enough so you can look down on the vise and fly as you tie. That or get an adjustable chair which will bring you up to that level. The second is a good light, an adjustable shop light on a swing arm with a 100 watt bulb works well. I would think next would be a good pattern book which shows both pictures of the flies, gives recipes, and instructions on different tying techniques. Eric Leisers book of fly patterns is a good one for that but there are probably newer ones showing newer recipes out there. With a good book you can pick out the patterns you want to tie then you get the materials to match the patterns. If you get materials first you will forever be short a material to tie one fly or another, by getting the book first you buy the materials you need to do the flies you want.

Snipe is very hard to get and gets harder all the time due to over hunting.Try this place, this guy has every critter under the sun. It's been a while since i've ordered from him but he had snipe then. He doesn't have an e mail address, he's a very traditional type.. strictly old english. Fisherman's Hackles and Flytying Bird Gardens 12 Middle Touches Avishayes Road Chard, Somerset England TA-20-1NU

Hi Bluegills, my flies are ready to send, I just need your address. I sent a PM but I guess it didn't go through. Carl

Hey guys, i'm not sure if i'm in the swap or not...this is my first one so bear with me. i asked to be. I IM'd to ask for the address to send the flies to but got no reply.. could anyone help me out? Carl

When I tied commercially I used both the white plastic boxes with dividers as the other guys mentioned. Or if it were flies with delicate hackle or feather wing salmon flies I had magnetic metal strips on the wall I attached them to.

Thanks SDH, I have some of Mary's flies. I was hoping to get some Dette flies tied before 1950 so that they would have been tied by mom and dad.

Ok great, count me in if you guys still need another person. Just let me know who to send my address to and where to send the flies. Carl

Hi guys, Would any of you happen to know where I could find flies tied by the catskill masters such as Flick, Wulff, Dette's, Steenrod, Cross, Christian, Darbee's etc. Could anyone here point me out to someone who might be willing to part with a fly or two tied by these great flytyers?

Well Mgj, I suppose you have a point in saying you deserve one of your own flies also and so want to include and extra one with the flies you send so you'll get one back. But, I gotta ask. If you want one of your own why go to the trouble of mailing it out just to get it back? You can simply tie it yourself for you right?

I would like to be in for the fly swap. I have a fly iv'e never bothered to name but i've been tying and useing it for the last 10 years or so on crappie and bream and they eat it up. Look in my pattern gallery. I tied one for it. Just let me know what I gotta do. Iv'e never been in a swap before.

Great pattern, I think that ones a keeper.

Hi Steven, I just sent you a series of pictures I took of me tying a wooly booger and I sent instructions for each numbered picture. I tied a second wooly and filmed it in stages to help a little more. Let me know if these help at all. Carl

Looks like youv'e been given some gread advice already that got you well on the road.Your fly looks great A couple of tricks I use that might help some is at the base of my post I add the SMALLEST drop of super glue which makes my post a little stiffer and easier to wrap the hackle around. The other is after taking about four turns of hackle around the post and tieing off the end behind the head I take my left hand and useing my thumb and forefinger I pull the hackle fibers that are in the way over the eye and pull them rearward until I finish the whip finish on the fly. After cutting the thread I just take my fingers and striaghten the hackle a little.

Hi Steven, I'm in Tennessee also and my vote for a new tyer this time of the year is a wooly booger in olive and/or black. A hares ear nymph works great also. Below is a picture of a fly ive been tying and useing with a lot of success for about 10 years now. Its a pattern I made up and not anything in particular and it's easy to tie. Tag of flat fine silver tinsel, hares ear dubbing from between the eyes of a hares maske dubbed on with the loop method. black and white barred woodduck flank as a soft hackle.

I showed the pic to our bug lady when she was at the house spraying. Definitly a wold spider and she said they can bite but it's like a bee sting. The brown recluse is that color and basically about that size but very skinny... ever seen a water spider and how skinny they are with long legs? They are in the same family and have the same shape. And the fiddle mark is larger and more noticable. But yeah... killl every one of those things to be safe. I'll pick up a rattlesnake and not mind it but if there is a spider in the room I want proof it's dead before i'll go back into it. I send my wife in to deal with the spiders then tag team with her and I take out the snakes.